Posts Tagged ‘ Loss of Self ’

Living in a World That is Against It

This is not easy, because the world is in complete denial. It denies, and denies completely – that this is the way it is. It proclaims that, to the contrary, it is the most wonderful place possible! And that anyone who says otherwise should be severely punished.

And its people hear and obey.

But they also hear something else “You must not be!” “No problem,” they say – and don’t exist. And not only that – they attack anyone who does exist. Who is foolish enough to not obey orders.

Now I have to ask myself why this is such a problem now – since non-conformists and free-thinkers have existed for a very long time.

I think (and this is only a guess) that this is because mass communications have made mass behavior part of the atmosphere we live in. Part of the air we breath – and cannot get away from.

Free-thinkers – and America used to have a lot of them in the middle of the 19th Century – used to have a much easier job. Their target was easily defined. And they could easily ridicule it.

Not anymore. How do you say that everything is wrong? You will simply be sent to the looney bin.

People conclude (unconsciously) that they can’t deal with it. And give up. And join the crowd. And become ignorant, stupid – and helpless.

There are plenty of people who say “We have a solution to this!” When they should be admitting, candidly – that there is no overall solution.

There are only solutions for individual problems – and for individual people. A society that is determined to not exist cannot be fixed at all.

Allow me to switch to my favorite example – software development. There have been a number of fine movements there – Open Source, Agile – all aimed at making better software. What they do not realize are the forces opposed to them in the marketplace – which are subtle, ubiquitous – and all-powerful.

All these forces – reform or reactionary – are centered around one thing – being. The reformers are determined to to be – but society is determined that they not be. And no one is aware that this conflict exists.

The whole idea, for them, of being to is too vague and too fuzzy. When it is as simple as it can be.

Any living being has being. But no machine has being – even if seems to be alive to its admirers – and those who serve it.

2013
03/31
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Philosophy
Sociology
Technology
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Destroying the World That Has Destroyed Us

I have hesitated to write this – it seems so irrational. But sometimes I have to take myself firmly in hand and say my piece anyway. Our conscious lives and our unconscious lives have gotten badly out of sync. And if I have to be the squeaky wheel that complains about this (much to everyone’s annoyance) I have to squeak anyway. With that in mind, I return to my original thought - we are destroying the world that destroyed us.

I am convinced this is going on right now – logically in our collective unconscious and practically in our dysfunctional world.

As I have said over and over – our things have taken over and eliminated us – as humans. And as a result – we have done the only rational thing we could do – we decided to destroy the world that destroyed us.

I used to wonder how to describe us – some kind of degraded humans, that much was obvious. But what, and how? Then it became obvious – we had become things ourselves – and things were not very bright  - since they were only machines.

Computers seem intelligent, true enough. But this is only an illusion – and a fateful one that has gotten us nowhere. We have to get behind this illusion – and get better at controlling them. Not better at letting them control us.

I work hard at this – getting to know about the cloud, for example. But most people are the same as everybody else (not too bright) with some small variations to make them feel unique.

The tragic result is that these thing-people attack any people-people still around. The worst thing they could possibly do – but that fits in with their overall objective – to destroy the world.

2013
03/30
CATEGORY
Morality
Philosophy
Sociology
Technology
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People are not Things

We have focused on our things so much we have become like them. Without realizing that this has happened at all.

Describing this in words is difficult because we have confused ourselves so well – using words as one of our main weapons. To put this another way – we have allied with our things against ourselves – as humans. Which annoys me no end – but does not seem to bother anyone else.

Take Emerson. Who said many fine things – but completely ignored this problem – which is the problem of our time. We got so much by concentrating on our things – we never noticed how much we were losing. The audience who listened to his lectures so avidly were in the process of disappearing. And he never saw a thing.

Probably because what was going on seemed so impossible. How could people stop being people? And become something else – mechanisms.

The answer, I believe, is simple – we have outsmarted ourselves. By directing our focus outside of ourselves – we were telling ourselves (in effect) that we were not important – and not only that – we did not even exist by comparison. We only existed to make our things better.

I see nothing wrong with making things better – in fact, I am very interested in doing just that. But at the same time I must insist that we not give up being human.

And right here is where I lose everybody. Because many of our activities seem human when they are not. For example – sex. We have invented sex objects – usually women – whose job is to act sexy – and make other people feel loved. When they are actually exploiting them.

This is one of the oldest games in town – using other people. Treating them as things.

It is clear that this is one of our human abilities – but one that has gone badly wrong – when our technologies got into the mix – and became part of us.

I spent this posting talking about what we are not. In the future, I will be talking about what we are – and you may be surprised by what makes us human.

2013
03/28
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Sociology
Technology
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Nietzsche and Ortega y Gasset

The first is well-known – the second less so. But their philosophies had considerable overlap.

Nietzsche had the advantage of being German – with a large (although posthumous) following.

Ortega y Gasset the disadvantage of being Spanish – with no following at all (during his lifetime or after). He did not realize himself what he had discovered – the worker in an Industrial economy – who was only good at two things: working and procreating (to put it politely). He called them the masses - and noted that, due to their numbers, they ended up controlling society.

Nietzsche called them slaves – and also noted that they had become dominant. But put them in a different historical context.

Wage-slaves – the combination of the two – have been noted by almost everybody. Not just by Karl Marx.

I am studying Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals. And to help me I bought a Reader’s Guide from the Continuum series, by Daniel Conway.

Ortega y Gasset is easier reading, and doesn’t need a guide.

Showing their overlap is not hard – and I intend to do it here. After I spend some more time on Nietzsche.

Ressentiment

According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged this is:

Deep-seated resentment, frustration, and hostility accompanied by a sense of being powerless to express these feelings directly

German, from French – resentment

The pronunciation is French – a language I have not the slightest proficiency in. I have been banished to Latin America, where living is cheaper.

Nietzsche had a brilliant insight here – but also a massive oversight. There was a lot of suffering going on – people were not able to be themselves - because they had to be workers. or employees, or consumers, or whatever. They needed a way to justify their suffering. And ressentiment handed it to them on a platter. It made them good and made the guys who made them suffer (the Capitalists) evil.

Once you see that, you can see it in all kinds of situations. Wherever people complain about their suffering – and label those who make them suffer – evil. And consider themselves good by comparison.

These two roles did not succeed each other in time (as Nietzsche thought) but in our time coexist – people that suffer want to continue to suffer – and people that inflict suffering want to to continue doing that too. Freud would provide this insight later.

It is not clear to me if Nietzsche understood this ambivalence – but if he was confused his confusion was understandable. Modern people (who use Scientific thinking) were used to thinking in terms of only two variables – cause and effect – and thinking of many interacting variables would not come until much later.

Nietzsche (being a Classical scholar) noticed that things were different in Classical times – before Christianity invented ressentiment.

Ortega y Gasset had no inkling of this amazing insight. He had only one insight – he saw the masses right before him – where everyone else saw nothing. Nietzsche had a similar insight – but didn’t see the wage-slaves right before him.

Perhaps when he did see them – (in the form of a horse being whipped) he went mad.

2013
03/23
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
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Poor Definitions

We live in a world of poor definitions
and we seem to feel this is a vast improvement
when it is just the opposite
a huge problem.

Poor definitions make us feel omnipotent,
when in fact we are
nothing at all.

Because we have never
found out
who we were.

Formatting my opening remarks as poetry makes them clearer and more acceptable. As you can see by reading the same thing as prose:

We live in a world of poor definitions and seem to feel this is a vast improvement, when it is just the opposite: a huge problem. Poor definitions makes us feel omnipotent, when in fact we are nothing at all. Because we have never found out who we were.

Poetry chunks up the phrases, and makes them hit the eye harder. Especially the phrase found out. Which refers to the process of discovery, when we define what we are thinking (and feeling) about.

So far, what I have been saying has been said many times before – by Emerson, for example. But I now want to add my own two-cents worth.

In our time, we feel not defining to be better because it lets us easily substitute illusions for reality. A tricky process that we should be monitoring very carefully.

To put this another way – we have become adverse to reality – and poor definitions help this aversion. Which is nothing less than mass insanity.

And I want to add more, something no one has been saying – except in fragments, here and there. The technological explosion in the last two centuries has caused this fuzzy thinking. By distracting us from our selves - as humans.

Being human is not easy – especially being good humans. This is what the humanities (and our religions) have been telling us for thousands of  years.

But our technological culture is telling us not to worry about this. If we perfect our technology we are perfecting ourselves. The most horrible lie ever invented.

The result is human stupidity on a vast scale. The real definition of post-modernity.

This switches me to another topic – modernity. What was the Modern World? This is a huge subject – but one which has been talked around endlessly. I am taking an online course about this from Wesleyan University. The president of the University teaches it himself, and what he covers is excellent. But he starts with the Enlightenment, with Kant!

This was hardly the beginning of the Modern World, which began much earlier with the Renaissance. Here I refer you to Wikipedia – which has an excellent article about this. It has many sub-topics, covering the Renaissance in every European country. It also covers Humanism, which is sometimes treated as a separate subject.

It should be noted that Wikipedia was a surprising result of the Internet – that no one anticipated. And which all kinds of authorities have disparaged.

The Renaissance merged directly into the Reformation. Which nearly blew Europe apart with a series of religious wars second to none. These were patched over by the appearance of Science – another huge subject I cannot go into here. This was followed by Industrialization – which finished the Modern World in the 19th Century.

All of these have been well-defined – almost too well-defined. We now move into an era of poor definitions – the post-modern world. I do not know how well the course will deal with this – but I am already apprehensive after viewing their Google Hangout video. Which is poorly done – as you can easily see for yourself.

This tells me they do not understand the technology they are using. And in our world this is a grievous (but all-too-common) sin.  If they cannot understand their technology – they certainly cannot understand themselves.

2013
03/21
CATEGORY
Philosophy
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To Not Be is to Be Pure

Being pure has been considered a religious passion with enormous implications. We have idealized our Puritans, for example – and have never tried to understand them, or place them in their context. They were too wonderful for that.

But Religion (with a capital R) has been married to Business (also with a capital B) to become one Grand Passion. One of whose objectives is the attainment of Purity.

The question that must be answered, of course, is purity from what? And the answer is simple – from their filthy selves. The worst things in the world. I will not go into the theological implications here – except to note that Christianity is full of them.

You will immediately object that no such thing is going on – that I am only imagining things. And I will counter by saying that most of our behavior has become unconscious – shoved into the dark where it won’t be noticed, but can operate just the same. But we can easily infer what is going on there by observing our behavior – which is clear enough (or claro in Spanish).

And have become pure – by simply not being at all.

But here again, I will get blank stares from people – being, what is that? And I, in turn, am flabbergasted – they don’t know what being is?

But then I have to admit – they really don’t! They have abandoned their selves (their being) to become pure beings – removed from the filthy world.

That they have also become incompetent – unable to function in the real world – does not seem to bother them.

Because that world does not interest them.

2013
03/17
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Business
History
Religion
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Self-Destruct on Command

This is so common we never notice it. But unless we do, we are finished – as a culture (a global culture), and as individuals.

But perhaps I should begin more modestly, and state my feelings first. I feel the world is no longer a friendly place. And in my naivete, I believe that the world must have been more friendly at one time – and should become more friendly again.

If I say this, however, I get no response – or a negative one. No one else seems to notice what bothers me enormously. They think something most be wrong with me instead. Something very wrong indeed.

I feel like the messenger that brings bad news – but ends up being killed instead. This is not a good feeling.

Everyone tells me I should change my message – or forget it. But this is like asking me to forget my body – and in effect, kill myself. Just like everyone else has done. This, to me, is no solution – but the problem itself.

My personal solution (I realize, looking back at it) was to change cultures – and live in Costa Rica – which is still a friendly country. Gradually, many of my problems (emotional and physical) disappeared. Will this work for you? I doubt it.

A few people can adapt, build a new personality over their old ones, and live hybrid lives. Or go back and forth between the two worlds frequently. Or become alcoholics. Or just stay the same, ignoring their surroundings. Most, however go back and learn nothing from their experience.

Changing yourself is not all that easy – and most people don’t even try. And most cultures do not try either. This is quite a change from what it was like only a couple of centuries ago – when revolution was in the air – and people were giving their lives for it.

We no longer have any lives to give. And we consider this a vast improvement.

We used to consider ourselves consumers – a lowly role if ever there was one – but now we are not even that. We simply don’t exist. But in our minds being nothing is the same as being everything – something we like very much.

This is easy to summarize – we have self-destructed. Because this is what we were told to do. We were simply following orders. We have forgotten that we are human – in our rush to become superhuman.

How did this happen (where did these orders come from)? I am only guessing here, but my guess is similar to many others. And it points in one direction – at our rampant technology. We have put so much into it – we had nothing left for ourselves (as a group) – or our selves (as individuals). We were left with nothing at all.

I must re-phrase this – and say what seems ridiculous – our things have issued these orders! They want everything for themselves – and want us out of the way! I know this sounds totally paranoid – but I can explain what I mean.

People and their technologies have always become the same thing – this is what a successful technology is – it takes over, and we merge with it. We become the same thing – or, if you prefer, the same complex. It acquires a mind of its own – and starts issuing orders – that we must obey.

Take the first industrial technology – the sailing ship. As I described in The Industrial Revolution Began With The Sailing Ship. This created an entirely new class of people – sailors, who existed only to man these ships. And who were incapable of anything else – such as understanding or managing the world they were in.

At first, this was not a problem. Other people – who were hopefully more capable – could run things for them. The sailors, and their families, only had to work and reproduce – two tasks they were quite capable of doing.

But as Industrialization continued, things got worse – because more and more people became workers. The most important thing in their lives were their jobs – where someone else was in control. This is what Capitalism was. Any thinking person could see its problems – never-ending development – but no one could stop it.

Then things got even more complicated. The Computer – really a complex of innovations (including hardware, software, and the Internet and Wireless networks) jerked us into another world – when we couldn’t even understand the one we left. We had gone from an industrial economy to a post-industrial economy (for the lack of a better label) when we didn’t even understand the old one!

We were really in a mess!

2013
03/16
CATEGORY
History
Psychology
Sociology
Technology
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Emerson, Wittgenstein and the Pleasures of the Mind

Self-Reliance by Emerson

Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations with commentary by Lois Shawver

I have noticed something amazing about most people – they have no minds! Or, to be more correct, they are strongly averse to using their minds – and only use them occasionally, in special contexts. Outside these contexts (when a programmer is programming, for example) they have no mind at all – or only deficient ones – that only want to be entertained.

And they hate people – such as Wittgenstein, or even myself – who point this out.

One of the things I learned from the book The Swerve, was how the Roman aristocracy liked to get together and philosophize – referring often to the Greek philosophers. Their villas (such as those at Pompeii) had large libraries full of expensive books – which they read often.

This was also true in early American history when people like Adams and Jefferson also had large libraries and corresponded with each other so copiously (in beautiful handwriting) their letters now fill volumes.

Their writing was intelligent, and even beautiful. By contrast, the writing now in the blogosphere reflects the minds of the people dwelling there  - not very impressive. The quantity has gone up, but the quality has gone down.

I am hardly saying anything new here – it has been said many times before, by pundits of all kinds. But none of them have drawn the obvious conclusion – that the human race is in very bad shape – and in the process of a major collapse. The most technologically advanced culture in history has become the most socially inept!

Since we have no minds, this is hardly surprising.

2013
03/11
CATEGORY
History
Philosophy
Uncategorized
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Self and Society

I am obsessed with the idea of Being, and am convinced a lot more work needs to be done on it. This posting is an attempt to do just that.

I used to subscribe to New Scientist, and still would be, except it costs $234 a year! They keep pestering me to subscribe again – and sent me a notice about their latest issue, which is about the Self. Since I am registered with their site, I can browse each issue – and I promptly took at look at this one.

This issue takes great delight in proving to its readers that the Self is an illusion! To be fair, one of their contributors also says this may be so – but it is still a useful illusion we should not discard. I ordered his book Reality, a Very Short Introduction.

It’s about time someone took the Self in hand and made sense of it. And another closely-related idea – Society.

The being of inanimate objects, a rock for example, is simple – it is simply what it is in itself.  It exists in a larger world, where it is affected by other objects – a person may pick it up the throw at at another. But this does not effect the rock itself. If it is ground up and made part of a road – each little rock is still a rock.

But as soon as life appears, things change drastically. Each individual has its own life-history – and as result, can vary. The mouse in my house quickly learned where the food was – and was a different mouse after that. Over time, mice evolved to be more successful in our company.

But with social animals, things were more complicated. The social behavior of whole species could evolve – and did. Edward O. Wilson describes this for our species in my other posting today The Riddle of the Human Species.

What I want to point out is that for us Self and Society are constructed on-the-fly – and are absolutely essential. In favorable situations they are enhanced – and in unfavorable situations (such as the one we are on now) they are degraded.

In favorable times, a society rises. In unfavorable times it falls. It doesn’t take a genius to see where we are now. What is more difficult to see is our self-destructive society. I have a very hard time seeing this myself. But Reality keeps hitting me over the head – with the behavior of people, such as my family, who seem to rejoice in showing me how nasty they can be.

I might as well come out and say it. We live in Evil Times. And if we are going to survive, we have to recognize this. And strengthen our selves and our society.

2013
02/26
CATEGORY
Philosophy
Psychology
Sociology
The Self
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Religion and Realitly

I learn some amazing things when I write. When I wrote The Religion of Our Time, for example. I surprised myself by what I ended up saying. That we have created a new religion of our own. I hardly needed to add that we were not aware of this at all.

After thinking about it some more, I was struck by how strange human society was. Every social animal has its own kind of society. And this is part of its genetic coding. But people are different. Every society is different, and even has its own language! And, of course, its own religion. And, for these reasons –  its own reality.

This last item gives me pause for thought. Are there many realities?

One of our most important insights – common to Buddhism and Science, and even the Abrahamic monotheistic religions – is that there is only one Reality. And we ignore that at our peril.

But this is just what this new religion does – it ignores reality. And its practitoners  are positively allergic to it; they can’t even stand the idea of it. And, as much as they can – they are destroying it.

The end result will be that Reality will destroy us – and all our grandiose pretensions.

2013
02/25
CATEGORY
Business
History
Morality
Religion
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